The Sweetest Thing
by Not That Girl
Summary: She had never had herself figured for a convent girl. But now, she


She had never had herself figured for a convent girl. But now, she couldn't imagine any other life.

"_Sometimes I sit on my_

_Front porch swinging_

_Just soaking up the day_

_I think to myself, I think to myself,_

_This world is a beautiful place. . ."_

"Blessed" by Martina McBride

"Y'know, Thom," she said thoughtfully, stroking her cat's soft black fur, "eight years ago, if you had told me this is where'd I'd be now, I would have told you I was crazy."

Her twin brother smiled at her. They were very alike, now, for all the years that had separated them. Red hair – Alanna's was longer than his, though – purple eyes, a face so similar that they could have traded places. The biggest difference in their appearances was their clothing – Thom, visiting his sister, wore the armor of a knight, and Alanna had on the robes of an acolyte of the Goddess. Touched by the Great Mother Goddess.

"Same here," Thom said. "But being a knight isn't what I thought it would be. It always sounded so bloody and gory, all death and war. It's more helping people, traveling and muck."

Alanna laughed, her voice ringing across the courtyard. They were outside, sitting on a park bench. The square was filled with plants and trees tended to by other acolytes or priestesses, and the sun was shining – it was a beautiful summer day.

Thom had only been a knight for a month or so, but during his time as a squire he had gotten enough experience to know it wasn't nearly what it was cracked up to be.

"I guess I would have been disappointed with knighthood," Alanna mused. "But here, I suppose, it's a lot of the same stuff. Helping people, I mean. I've seen horrible things – awful things – the carnage of war, the horror of sickness, and there's been times I've thought I couldn't deal with it. But then Sassah – she's one of the priestesses, she's been in charge of me since forever – she just deals with it. . . so it seems to me that I must. . ."

She trailed off, staring at the sky. Thom looked at her. She was so different from the sister he had known. The old one had been spunky, fiery, full of energy. He had a feeling that this sister could do much more than the other one, that she could move mountains if she wanted.

He had hated his knight training, knowing that he was being trained to kill other people, knowing that he could do so much more. Slowly, over time, he had learned that being a knight was about more than that; it was, as he had told Alanna, about helping people, about effecting change, and he could use his magic for that.

No, he wasn't a mage, and he had wanted to be, but he was happy.

The black cat on Alanna's lap stretched. Alanna twisted her mouth in a wry grin. "Faithful, are you leaving me?"

The cat meowed an answer, and Alanna replied, "Fine, if you're going to be that way."

Faithful jumped off her lap and pranced away, tail high. The other people in the garden watched the cat, some with amusement, others eyeing him with wary apprehension.

"I had a funny dream the other night," Alanna said, determinedly. Funny, Thom thought. What's she got to be determined about?

His sister continued, "It was the world the way it would have been if I had convinced you to switch places with me. You were a mage, powerful. I didn't see much of your life, but I was a knight, a lady knight, and they called me the Lioness. I was. . . chosen of the Goddess. It was rather strange, because I was a knight, you know? But I was a healer, too, and I saved the prince's life."

"Prince Jonathan?"

"Yes, Prince Jonathan. And the king and queen died a few years after I was knighted, and Jonathan was made king. . . we were lovers, and he asked me to marry him, but I said no. And I was the King's Champion, too."

Thom frowned. "I think I rather prefer this world. That sounds very confusing."

A gust of wind blew some of Alanna's locks into her face. "Yes. I do, too."

Because, even if they hadn't thought that this was what they wanted, it was a good world.

Author's Notes: Short, I know. I haven't read Song of the Lioness in a long time, so if some of Alanna's dream wasn't accurate, sorry : ). I'm thinking of continuing this, writing about how Alanna and Thom came to be how they are now in more detail. What do you think? 


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